Former cheerleader embraces childhood dream

Sara Higgins

Published 11:31 am, Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Photo: Chaney Mitchell

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The preschool class at Tuck & Roll Gymnastics and Cheerleading watch coach and owner Stephanie Rice with their "gymnastics goggles" while learning the moves for the June 13 class workout. Chaney Mitchell/Reporter-Telegram less

The preschool class at Tuck & Roll Gymnastics and Cheerleading watch coach and owner Stephanie Rice with their "gymnastics goggles" while learning the moves for the June 13 class workout. Chaney ... more

Stephanie Rice, owner and coach of Tuck & Roll Gymnastics and Cheerleading, stamps the hand of Zoe Shaw, 4, June 13 at the end of class. Tuck & Roll opened for business June 4. Chaney Mitchell/Reporter-Telegram

Stephanie Rice, owner and coach of Tuck & Roll Gymnastics and Cheerleading, stamps the hand of Zoe Shaw, 4, June 13 at the end of class. Tuck & Roll opened for business June 4. Chaney Mitchell/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Chaney Mitchell

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Addison Williams, 4, crawls out of a tunnel during an obstacle course at Tuck & Roll Gymnastics and Cheerleading. Chaney Mitchell/Reporter-Telegram

Addison Williams, 4, crawls out of a tunnel during an obstacle course at Tuck & Roll Gymnastics and Cheerleading. Chaney Mitchell/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Chaney Mitchell

Former cheerleader embraces childhood dream

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Stephanie Rice loved gymnastics as a 5-year-old. She also loved softball, basketball and soccer, but her rigorous 5-days-a-week training sessions kept her from branching out beyond the gym until she left the competitive gymnastics scene.

Rice, 24, now aims to help bring the fun back into rolls, tucks and flips with Tuck & Roll Gymnastics and Cheerleading. The mats, beams and bars that fill the studio look like an indoor playground. Instead of a trampoline, Rice utilizes an inflatable tumbling device called an air track to help little ones learn to jump.

"It's like a bouncy castle, but long," she said excitedly.

The gym becomes a lab for experimentation with high school cheerleaders as they add whip backhand springs to their round-offs under Rice's watchful eye.

"Keep that head between your arms," she said as she held her arms out to spot the girls. "That was it!" she said giddily as one of the cheerleaders landed on her feet.

Opening a studio for gymnastics and cheerleading has been a dream of Rice's since she walked into a cheerleading gym as a seventh grader. As one of the older students, she got to help teach and guide the younger cheerleaders. Though she had left behind the pressures of competitive gymnastics, she found her skills helped her evolve into a better cheerleader.

"Once you figure out you're not going to be an Olympic gymnast, you can either go to college or get into cheerleading, that's all you've got," she said.

While still in college, Rice held coaching positions at Odessa College and Concordia College in Austin. While attending college in Austin, she spent three years working in a recreational gym that now serves as her inspiration for a fun-focused environment.

"It wasn't competitive," she explained. "It was very recreational."

When she was offered a position to work with Midland Christian School's cheerleading team, her father reminded the recent college graduate of her dream to open a gym.

"I didn't know that was like, now," said Rice, who also choreographs for Midland Christian's varsity squad. "I was fresh out of school."

Rice made the decision to follow her dream and jumped in head first, completing her business plan and establishing the gym's name in one month. It took another two months to find the current location of the gym inside Kingsway Mall at Midkiff Road and Illinois Avenue. The name of the gym still was hand-painted on the front windows of the storefront when it opened June 4. She works with 15 girls from the Midland Christian School cheerleading team and has 20 kids enrolled in summer camps. Remaining camp dates for this summer are July 9-13, July 30-Aug. 3, and Aug. 13-17. Camps run five days per week from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and include arts and crafts, cooking time, games and gymnastics.

"There are so many kids that want to just learn fun gymnastics stuff, but with the pressures of competitive (gymnastics) they have to come five times a week versus coming once a week just to have fun," she said. "It's so much money, so much time that you don't get to do anything else. I'm all about, 'Yes, go be in kickball and soccer, all that fun stuff, and do this, too.'"

This is all just the beginning of Rice's dream. She hopes to build her own gym with taller ceilings, and will start a non-profit class for kids with special needs in the fall.

"It will focus a lot on the kids just getting to come have fun," she said. "I know they do a lot of therapy all day, so I want them to have a place to come have fun."